While she packed, Sky had heard the sounds of fighting through the castle walls. The explosions of her father’s magic, sounds of impacts against the walls, and screams. Lots of screams. Much closer than they had a right to be. She had never heard fighting so close. It made her stomach tight, and she finished her packing in a blur.
The door burst open and her father ran in. He had a cut across the bridge of his nose and his Wizard robe was singed and torn. “We have to go,” he said. “Now. The castle is lost. The Red King himself is here.”
“The Lord?” Sky asked as she grabbed her pack and slung it over her shoulder.
“Dead, as is the First. I’m getting you out myself. We sent a rider to the Elves, but things went bad too quickly. They’ll never arrive in time.”
Sky’s father hurried her out of the room and down the stone staircase. “We’ll take the passage out of the kitchen, that’s the closest. I’m glad you’re still wearing your hunting outfit, a dress is not the best outfit for escaping a siege.”
As they descended the stairs Sky began adjusting her belt and waistcoat to fit more snugly than she usually wore them. She didn’t want loose corners catching on anything as she fled. If she had been at class, she might still be wearing on of her stuffy dresses, and it might take her all day to even get down the stairs.
They were almost to the kitchen when they ran into the soldiers. Her father saw them first and pulled his wand from his belt. There were four of them, wearing the colors of the Red Court. Large, brutish men, drenched in sweat and blood. Two carried heavy axes, one carried a shield and a spear, and the fourth…the fourth was the Red King, the runes on his sword glowing with an angry light.
“Damn our luck,” snarled Sky’s father and aimed his wand at the men.
A bolt of lighting shot from the wand and hit one of the men with an axe. It arced around him and the bolt continued through him to hit the second axe man. Both men shook and burned, then collapsed on the ground.
Sky stared at the men on the ground, charred from the electricity. She heard her father shout for her to run, but his voice seemed far away and the dead men were so much closer. Her father spoke again, then slapped her.
Her father was shouting in her face. “You must go now!”
Over his shoulder the two remaining men were running towards them. The huge man with the red sword was grinning.
“Father!” she screamed.
Her father turned and fired his wand, but the two men were closer than he had expected. The Red King flicked his glowing red blade, and the lightning bolt deflected off it and into the second man. The soldier with the shield had a brief moment to look surprised, possibly annoyed, then he was thrown across the room and landed in a smoking pile.
The Red King brought his sword back the other way, and Sky’s father dropped his wand as his head went in one direction and his body in another. His momentum brought him crashing into Sky, and she went down with him on top of her.
He smelled of sweat and death. His hair was a greasy tangle of long, blood red strands. Not orange, as Sky had seen before on people, but red like blood. His knotted beard was the same color. She looked up at him dazedly and saw to her horror that he had something under his skin. Wiggling things, like worms coiled and wound just under his skin. As he smiled, she could see small blood red worms stuck in his teeth.
She screamed.
Her screams seemed to please the Red King. He was on top of her, balanced on his hands and knees. His eyes were rolling over her, looking at her as a wolf looks at a rabbit. With his free hand he pulled at her top, tearing it away as if it were paper. He forced his legs between hers and thrust them apart.
Sky flailed at his head, but the Red King just laughed and backhanded her. Her head exploded in light and she tasted blood. She felt she was slipping away, and fought it. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something. Her father’s wand.
The Red King ran his hand down her body. He seemed unsure what to do about getting her pants off and his own with just one hand free. Her fear had excited him, and the Red King was never known for his brilliance. After very little real thought, he put his sword down to use both hands.
The glow in the blade went out as Sky’s hand wrapped around the wand.
Wands are tricky things. Like many magical foci, they help someone with the gift to focus their talent and control arcane forces. With only a few years training, a novice can use a wand like a fire hose, throwing energy around with little control. To use a wand properly takes many, many years.
But the other thing about wands is that they act as a magical battery. The user, an experienced wizard like Sky’s father, pumps in spells with the intent of using them later. It allows a wizard to have at their disposal power beyond what they could normally muster on their own.
And being batteries, bad things can happen when they break. Sky didn’t know the significance of the Red King’s sword leaving his hand, or anything at all about the Red Blade. She also didn’t know for sure what would happen if she broke the wand. She just acted. She drove the wand tip first into the back of the Red King’s head. It shattered like it were made of glass, and the Red King’s head exploded.
It took the Red King’s body a few moments to realize it was without a head. Sky screamed again when she saw long red tendrils whipping up from the Red King’s ruined lower jaw. Like small bloody snakes, blind to the world but looking for purchase.
Sky pushed at the Red King to move his body, but he was heavy and her angle was bad. She pulled herself up, and as she reached out for a better grip on the floor, the Red Blade slid across the wood towards her hand, handle first as if seeking her out. She gripped it instinctively when it touched her fingers, and with renewed strength she rolled the Red King off.
“We need to leave,” said a voice at Sky’s hand. Sky looked at the sword in astonishment. The runes on the blade glowed. “Unless you really like the whole ‘rape and pillage’ thing. Those sounds you aren’t paying attention to are soldiers murdering their way through the castle.”
Sky was the daughter of a Wizard, so she tended to be pretty understanding of magical weirdness. She didn’t have time to ponder a talking sword, so she put the idea aside and focused on the problem at hand. “The secret tunnel!”
“No good. They knew about that. It would be full of burning pitch by now.”
Sky felt numb. All those people. Children. Kestrel. Oh gods, Kestrel! Not Kestrel too! “But the people – “
“Are gone. I can get us out of here, but I need you to tell me to do so. I need you to tell me to ‘open a door.’”
Sky didn’t know anything about the Red Blade. She knew it was the sword of the Red King, and it was magical, but her studies hadn’t covered it yet. Or she hadn’t listened. Seventeen year old girls often have interests other than magical history. But one thing her father had told her she remembered. Some magic items were cursed, and you used them at your peril. They could do incredible things, but the price could be terrible. The Red King had been…tainted. That was the only word she could think of to describe what had been under his skin. If she allowed herself to use the Red Blade, would she have to pay the same price? Would she be paying it just by holding the weapon?
“Or just get raped and butchered. Whatever,” said the sword.
Soldiers burst into the room from both of the entrances. They weren’t her soldiers. They were covered in death, their weapons wet with blood. Two were carrying women that were not long to this world.
“Sword, open a door!” She shouted.
The sword in her hand shot forward of its own accord, although her hand was still holding the handle. It stabbed at the air, its red steel shimmering, and an opening appeared where it cut. An opening in the air, showing an out of focus background different from the kitchen. Sky felt a pull from the opening, like a wind pushing against her.
“You’re the one with the legs,” said the sword. “Go through.”
With a quick glance at the soldiers coming for her, she stepped into the hole. It closed behind her with a pop, and she was somewhere else